Hey guys! Today I'm sharing with you one of my last illustrations, "Hombre Caimán y Colombiana", a personal ode to the culture of the Colombian North Coast region. In this entry I'll explain the meaning behind the visuals of this illustration. So, get comfy and let's go deep in my own adventure in recreating an representing my culture through drawing and illustration.
This is the final artwork
Before we start, let me explain about the title. The artwork is named in Spanish "Hombre Caimán y Colombiana" which translates to "Alligator Man and Colombian (in feminine)". Perhaps, many of you may not know about this, but the alligator man is one of the most famous legends from the Colombian North Coast. I'm not quite an expert, but as far I understand this legend has many variations. My favorite one starts with an impossible love:
A storekeeper in love with a young woman named Roque Lina who lived by the opposite side of the river. They where forbidden to see each other because Roque Lina's father didn't like the storekeeper. With fear of loosing Roque Lina, he decided to cross the river (where she bathe every night) as an alligator. They repeated the encounters for many nights until Roque Lina's brother suspected she was seeing the storekeeper. Frightened, he decided to fled with Roque Lina to the deep of the river's waters and never came back again.
As you can see in this sculpture, the original alligator man was narrated and interpreted as a man with alligator body. In other versions he's a bewitched fisherman who transforms his body so he can watch naked woman bathe in the river.
As for my own interpretation, I wanted to make a modern alligator man switching the concept to a young man with an alligator head. I always liked to draw cute animals and the most fun part to do was his head since alligators have an interesting shape and colors. About his clothing style, I wanted to refer Barranquilla, the capital city of the Atlantico department and the largest city of the North Coast; he wears a cardigan and a hat with the flag colors of the city plus he has a baseball bat. Barranquilla has an old time tradition with baseball, might not be as popular as soccer but it has nearness since the city has a baseball team called "Caimanes de Barranquilla" (translates to Barranquilla Alligators I think), it's own baseball stadium and an all time favorite baseball player, called Edgar Renteria who played for many years in many American teams like the Florida Marlins and the San Francisco Giants.
*To the left, the Caimanes brand and to the right is Edgar Renteria. Official Caimanes Twitter account: https://twitter.com/caimaneslcbp?lang=es *
About the pink haired girl, she's the Colombiana. I wanted to make a girl with personality, which represents the empowerment of the contemporary/urban woman, someone who my friends could be identified with. She has a red hibiscus flower in her hair, which we call a Cayena and represents our largest festival, "El Carnaval de Barranquilla". Finally, as an extra I wanted to play with a widely loved national brand in her shirt: Gaseosa Colombiana, which is a soda brand made by Postobón and an all time favorite from our culture.
The Gaseosa Colombiana tastes very good with any kind of our typical dishes
And last but not least, they are sharing a Pan de Bono bag, which is a delicious kind of bun originated from Valle del Cauca, but quite popular in the North Coast. The bun is made with corn flower, starch, yucca, cheese and egg. The Pan de Bono is commonly consumed as a snack or for breakfast.
The picture is taken from "My Colombian Recipes" website. You can check the recipe in Spanish from their website https://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/es/pandebonos-colombianos
Hope with this article, you find not only my illustration interesting but my culture as well. Doing this artwork helped me a lot finding the themes and styles I want to draw in relation with my culture and perhaps make more awareness world wide about the beautiful and interesting things we have from now on. I hope as well, it help other artists from my region and country to approach the beauties behind our storytelling, people, nature and even brands.
Best wishes!
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